Street roots., July 04, 2014, Page 13, Image 13

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Street roots
July 4, 2014
Drug shortage threatens Death with Dignity rights
HUNTER MARSHALL
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T
spat between a drug manufacturer
and states that use the death penalty
could soon be impinging upon
residents’ right to die.
Pharmacists I’ve spoken with from
Portland to Seattle, report the manufacturer
of pentobarbital, the drug used under
Washington state’s Death with Dignity law,
has halted sales to the United States in
protest of the drug’s diversion for use in
state executions. With pharmacy; supplies of
pentobarbital now virtually nonexistent, aid-
in-dying advocates are
scrambling to find a
Hunter Marshall
reasonable alternative
works as a hospice for those seeking to
use Death with Dignity
nurse in Seattle
and as a volunteer Act in the Pacific
Northwest.
helping individuals
Aid-in-dying became
utilize Death with
state law in
Dignity.
Washington in 2009
with the passage of
1-1000, or the Death
with Dignity A ct It came on the heals of .
Oregon’s 1994 Death with Dignity Act. •
Passed with wide support in both states,
both acts allow mentally competent adults
with a life expectancy of six months or less
to obtain a prescription for a medication to
end their lives. Data from the Washington
State Department of Health show that
pentobarbital has become the drug of choice
for aid-in-dying, and the secondrmost
commonly used drug in Oregon cases.
Only recently have state executions
interfered with the terminally-ill individual’s
right to die.
«
P rio r to th e c u rre n t drug shortage,
aQduim.Jthio.Dental was -the staple of a three-
drug cocktail used in executions, according
the Death Penalty Information Center. This
changed when the U.S.-based manufacturer
moved production to Italy. Unable to meet
the Italian government’s demand that their
product not be used in capital punishment,
the company announced in a press release^
in early 2011 that it would halt production of
the drug.
U.S. prisons found an alternative drug
produced by Lundbeck, a Danish
pharmaceutical company. Outraged at what
Lundbeck CEO Ulf Wiinberg deemed a
“distressing misuse” of their product, the
turned to compounding pharmacies, which
specializë in making driigs not otherwise
available.
Compounding pharmacies began using
the same drug, pentobarbital, for executions
and for aid-in-dying. This' is where the
company moved to curtail its u se/B y July
trouble for aid-in-dying began. ~
201L the"^ew*^irirTime^eporteT—
Lundbeck had established a distribution
policy that effectively restricted prisons.
These efforts were bolstered by the
European Union, which later voted to ban
the export of drugs used in executions.
Prisons foundthemselves unable to
replenish their supplies. Undeterred, they
The m anutacturer apparently Taught wind
of prisons’ plans to use the drug for
executions. In what appears to have been an
attempt to thwart prisons’ use of the drug
without endangering access to those with a
genuine need, compounding pharmacies
found themselves required to sign a contract
stating they would not supply the drug for
executions. One Seattle-based compounding
pharmacy owner - who wishes to remain
anonymous due to the contentious nature of
aid-in-dying - told me they received this
reque'st in the summer of 2013.
States determined to move forward with
executions turned to bribery. St. Louis
Public Radio reported that prison officials
began paying thousands of dollars in cash
and ensuring pharmacies’ identities
remained secret in return for the drug;
some pharmacies couldn’t resist. With the
assumption of anoriymity and an ample
profit,-a compounding pharmacy in
Oklahoma proyided a Missouri prison with a
dose of pentobarbital, according to the St.
Louis Public Radio report
Pharmacists I work with tell me that in
response to such transgressions, the
manufacturer struck back, halting sales of
the drug entirely. As a result, supplies of the
drug are dwindling. After delaying
executions due to the shortage, the state of
Oklahoma was forced to use a new cocktail
of medications in the recent botched
execution of Clayton Lockett, according to
the Death Penalty Information Center.
. Fqr Washingtonians and Oregonians
seeking to use the DeathWith Dignity Act,
the situation is dire. Pentobarbital is no
longer available.
An alternative drug exists,'■ but it costs
nearly $1,800 pet dose.
It is also troublesome that there are
intermittent shortages of that drug. So
when supplies run out, the Death with
Dignity Act may become a casualty.
It is ironic that the state’s right to kill
jeopardizes the rights of those with terminal
illnesseg. L
Until legislative bodies address this
conflict, those hoping to use th e D eath w ith
Dignity Act may find themselves sentenced
to. a lifetime of pain and suffering — a cruel
and unusual punishment
R eprinted fro n t Street Roots sister paper,
R eal Change Newspaper, in Seattle, Wash.
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